Undergraduate Student Government at Stony Brook University
The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) at Stony Brook University is a governing body representing the undergraduate students of Stony Brook University. As with most student governments in the United States, one of USG's main functions is to recognize, fund and regulate student organizations. The USG is composed of Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches. Along with the Graduate Student Organization, USG is the only other organization authorized to distribute the Student Activity Fee (SAF) in a viewpoint-neutral manner. The mandatory SAF provides the USG with an annual budget of approximately $3.1 million, unaffected by the state budget. In accordance with State University of New York Chancellor's Guidelines for mandatory student activity fee disbursement, the USG's finances are managed by an independent fiscal agent, the Faculty Student Association and the budget is approved by the University President's designee, VP of Student Affairs Dr. Peter Baigent.A conflict of interest exists because Dr. Peter Baigent is not only the University President's designee for USG, but Dr. Baigent is also the President of the Faculty Student Association's (FSA's) Board of Directors. Since FSA is USG's fiscal agent that means that Dr. Baigent has dual loyalties. Dr. Baigent has a loyalty to USG, as USG's designee and he also has a loyalty to FSA as the President of FSA's Board of Directors. Dr. Baigent should not be approving the agreement between USG's independent fiscal agent,FSA and USG since he has an interest in both organizations. Also deceptive is that USG's Administrative Director, Thomas Kirnbauer,serves as the Faculty Student Association's Board of Directors Vice President. He is listed as a Graduate Student to divert any attention to the fact that he too, has dual loyalties. This arrangement is also a conflict of interest since Mr. Kirnbauer's USG's Administrative Director's paycheck actually comes from FSA. FSA's Board of Directors and Conflict of Interest Policy can be accessed on FSA's website at:http://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/fsa/